The lights are on here, but no one's home. I've moved to a new place! A word has been dropped from my url and I can now be found at Tippytoesandtantrums.com. No more Typepad. Click over, bookmark it, and find me over there. I'll be waiting for you.

August 19, 2013

If this blog were roadwork, there would be a cone zone set up all around. Soon - maybe tomorrow, maybe later this week - things will be changing and moving here. I've spent the past few days building a new blog and live testing - or the slightly x-rated sounding soft launch - begins next. So, if things look funny or are not working right, we're on it.

Until then, entertain yourselves with this pig learning to use his toy wheelchair:

August 09, 2013

I hate excuses. My philosophy is to just own up to whatever went wrong, which means that this week I suck. We returned late Monday from vacation and I woke up sick the next morning. I worked each day, then collapsed into bed, sometimes way too early, like 2 p.m. during a Dropbox upload. ("I'm just going to rest for a minute while the photos uplo...zzzzz.") This was a dream for the kids, who quietly turned on the TV and iPods for hours of endless, unpestered play.

Then yesterday things got a little better and I was finally being productive when our internet caught my illness. It went down hard, which is thankfully rare, but toss together a moderately sick person with no internet and it was as if I'd been stranded on a remote island with nothing more than the Penny Saver. I moaned, I cried, I mourned. I was close to calling Hospice. The internet said I had influenza, but I'm embarrassed to say I had a man cold. It was bad; I watched three episodes of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo without moving an aching muscle. I was clearly giving up.

Today the internet is back, and my optimism resurfaced briefly until one kid left his room fully dressed before 7 a.m., having spilled a full glass of milk in bed, which soaked through every quilt, blanket, sheet, and lovey. The vacation laundry remains tossed on the living room floor while I wash the milk mess.

A lot has happened - New Jersey! Philadelphia! Disney's Planes! Probably other stuff! Oh, yeah, I made a cocktail! And a super cool bulletin board that has me enamored! - but for now, someone has to unpack, and it appears I'm the lucky winner. Did I mention we're going camping on Sunday?

July 26, 2013

Whoo hooo, the kids' photo albums for the year are complete! Sadly, it's last year. Still, goal met and all. It truly was Christmas in July as I felt all of the frustration and rage I normally feel when doing these albums at the end of the year. I need a new album source.

There are six weeks of summer left, but I'm feeling pretty much done. I fall into the trap of planning ahead which is really a form of procrastinating. Standing in our front yard that was ravaged by a lax builder, I thought about how I plan to do needed yard maintenance in the fall. That plan is ridiculous because the fall isn't going to be any more relaxed than July. It's all a mess and I need a drip system.

Today is the last day of summer camp for my kids, which is sad, scary, and exciting. Sad because I will not be alone at home until mid-September, scary for all the squabbling, requests, and entertaining that will happen, and exciting because part of that entertaining includes adventures. There is potential in the freedom, I only hope it doesn't get eaten by squabbling. When I said good morning to one of my kids who was adding syrup to a waffle, her response was, "I'm bored." You're eating breakfast before leaving for camp in a few minutes, there is nothing to be bored about. But, we're reached that age, the age of perpetual boredom.

One of the many things I will miss about camp is the lunch program. My kids' school doesn't have a lunch option, making summer camp our only break from lunch-making during the year. Saying goodbye to that makes me want to cry. Hello, cheese and crackers!

My boredom busting plan is to do one fun thing a day, from the big, like a Giants game, to the small, an unlimited electronics day. Let's do this thing, summer!

July 15, 2013

Here is the downside to (predominantly) women's conferences that hasn't been mentioned in any debate over the merits: clothing. Figuring out what to wear and how to navigate a field where fellow bloggers judge you by your shoes is a total pain.

For the first time in about six or seven years, I'm not going to BlogHer, but that has nothing to do with the clothes or the shoes. The upside of BlogHer growing so large is that you can wear whatever you want. Wear a dress, wear shorts (although pack a cardigan or risk freezing due to air conditioning), wear a t-shirt with your Twitter handle written in sequins across your chest (shudder), it doesn't matter.

This year I'm going to Alt Summit, and while everyone I've met online seems really nice, it's definitely a more artistic, fashion-savvy crowd, not to mention it's at the Fairmont, which means my sneakers and capris are staying home. Adding to my panic is that the party theme one night is Alice in Wonderland. I wish I'd know this while I was at Disneyland last; one crazy hat could have solved my problem. Between kids, work, a yet to be unpacked home, and various other time sucks (ants! wonky tire pressure!), throwing together a Queen of Hearts-themed outfit is not going to happen. Do I go hipster or do I dress up?

I ditched work to head to the mall this morning to find a dress and a dressy cardigan. I'm sure there is a name for that - knit bolero? - but I don't know. I bought a dress and two knit boleros (doesn't sound right. Shrunken sweaters?), and as I walked toward the food court to pick up a victorious salad, I checked Facebook where a few people were rallying together to say let's make this casual. Oh no, we will not. I just bought a dress, so this thing is on.